A new internet fraud that targets gullible Irish used car buyers has been exposed. The fraudsters advertise used cars for sale in Irish motoring and classified magazines, as well as on internet sites at attractive prices.
When a prospective buyer makes contact, the fraudster e-mails pictures of a car and scans of relevant documents, such as registration papers.
The fraudsters explain that the car is in another country, but that it has had the required Vehicle Registration Tax paid, and is ready to be imported into Ireland. They promise to ship the car at their own expense if the buyer lodges a deposit with a third-party internet insurance company known as an escrow insurer.
Escrow insurers are companies that operate as intermediaries when two parties that are unknown to each other want to transact over the internet. Genuine escrow companies are mainly based and licensed in the US state of California.
However, the fraudsters have created fake website pages purporting to be escrow sites and are using these to con Irish car buyers.
In one case, a 2003 Skoda Superb car with 30,000 miles on the clock was offered for just €7,500. Its true market value is in excess of €16,000.
When contacted by a prospective buyer, the fraudsters e-mailed that they would set up an account with an escrow insurer to "protect both parties". An e-mail was then sent to the victim from an account purporting to be a genuine escrow service. However, the e-mail that was received linked to a fake site.
The site at first appears genuine and contained instructions to transfer money by Western Union - in this case a €2,500 deposit - to 'an escrow agent'.
However, buyers have been warned that genuine escrow insurers never send e-mails with payment or shipping instructions, do not accept payment through Western Union or Money Gram, and never use agents in other countries.
"As is typical in online fraud, the escrow fraud scammer will request the use of a third-party escrow service to facilitate the exchange of money and merchandise," explains Escrow.com, a genuine internet insurance company.
"The victim is unaware the scammer has actually created an escrow site that closely resembles a legitimate escrow service. The victim signs up with the phony escrow service and sends payment to the service and receives nothing in return."
In this case, the buyer refused to send the money after becoming suspicious of the fake site and realising that the price of the car was just "too good to be true".